Reflections of the past
by Dragonblossom
Summary: 15 years in the future Usagi remembers a horrible event that took her friends away.


It is now 15 years after Galaxia was defeated. Usagi is in her home with her husband Momaru and her daughter Chibi Usa. They had just finished dinner and the sun was starting to go down on a cool spring evening.   
  
"Hey Mom, I have a school project due in a couple of days, and I need pictures of you and Dad when you were younger." Chibi Usa spoke.  
  
"There should be some pictures you can use in the back of our closet." Usagi answered. "Just be careful, there may be some heavy boxes on the top shelf."  
  
"Thanks Mom." Chibi Usa replied and ran up the steps.  
  
"So would you like to take a walk?" Momaru asked Usagi seeing that she looked a little down.  
  
"No thank you, I'll be fine." Usagi answered feeling tears coming to her eyes.  
  
"Oh I remember, tomorrow it will be 15 years since..." Momaru started.  
  
"Please don't remind me, I've been trying to forget about that day." Usagi interrupted almost breaking a sob.  
  
"You're right Usako, I'm sorry." Momaru apologized.  
  
Upstairs in the back of Usagi and Momaru's closet, Chibi Usa got to work in looking for pictures.  
  
"No not this one, maybe this one, ewe defiantly not this one! Dad looks like a dork! Hmmm... not this one. Ah! What was mom thinking when she fixed her hair like that!" Chibi Usa commented on every picture she looked at trying to find a good one. She then stumbled on another box full of pictures. When she opened it up, she found many more cute pictures, much better than the previous box she looked through. These pictures weren't only of her parents, but one other different girl was in each picture. She then came upon a framed one that had her parents and all four of the same girls from the other pictures. It was very dusty so Chibi Usa used her shirt sleeve to polish it off. The picture was very cute and Chibi Usa wondered who the girls were and why her mom had it in a box at the back of her closet. Chibi Usa got up to go downstairs to ask her mom. Then she realized what a mess she had made in the closet with all the pictures she had looked at.  
  
"Oh well, I'll just get them later." She shrugged and headed down the stairs.  
  
Usagi was in the kitchen looking out the window at the setting sun. Momaru was in the other room doing some work. Chibi Usa approached her.  
  
"Um Mom," She said getting her attention. Usagi turned. "I was looking through the pictures and I came across this one, and I wanted to know who these girls are." Chibi Usa revealed the picture. When Usagi looked at it, she felt that her heart had stopped. Her eyes began to well up and she had to fight to keep tears from flowing down her cheeks.  
  
"Chibi Usa," she spoke gently, "Please go put this away."   
  
"But Mom," Chibi Usa pleaded.  
  
"Put it away!" Usagi yelled in frustration.  
  
"Ok," Chibi Usa pouted and walked back up the steps.  
  
Usagi almost broke down crying. Momaru came into the room.  
  
"Everything ok?" He asked Usagi.  
  
"No," she answered. "Chibi Usa brought down the framed picture of us and our friends. I just can't stand it anymore. It's just not fair!"  
  
"Usako, it happened 15 years ago." Momaru reminded calmly.  
  
"I know it just feels like everything happened yesterday." Usagi explained. Then she began to go into a flash back.  
  
15 years ago.....................................  
  
It was spring, one of the best times of the year, the weather got warmer, flowers and trees bloomed, and the days got longer. Usagi and her friends were hanging outside eating ice cream. Also they were talking seriously about a rumor going around Tokyo about a yoma from the dark kingdom was still alive and hadn't been killed. It was reported that 27 people have already been killed. Luna and Artimis said that it was from the dark kingdom because of the type it was and how it was described.  
  
"I don't know if I believe this rumor." Ami stated. "We already destroyed the dark kingdom about two years ago, and many other enemies have been destroyed after that."  
  
"I know what you mean," Minako added, "We just can't ignore it though."  
  
"Do you think it could be a new enemy?" Rei suggested brushing a strand of hair behind her ear with her fingers.  
  
"It could be, let's hope not though." Ami replied.  
  
"Well if there is a yoma loose, we can't just sit around and wait for it to attack anyone else, I say we destroy as soon as possible." Makoto said.  
  
"Your right Mako-chan," Ami praised, "what do you think Usagi-chan? Usagi-chan?"  
  
"Have you ever noticed that ice cream always taste best during the spring?" Usagi questioned observantly.  
  
Everyone else sweat dropped. It was planned that in two hours, they would meet up, transform, and hunt the yoma down. Everyone agreed. Then they went their separate ways.  
  
Two hours later, they met up at the edge of the park. For once Usagi was on time. She had gotten better with her flakiness.   
  
"Ready everyone?" Usagi asked feeling a little nervous. Everyone nodded. Then each of them held up their transformation objects and transformed into the Sailor Senshi.   
  
"Are sure the yoma is in here?" Sailor Venus asked staring into the woods.  
  
"This is where everyone was attacked." Sailor Mercury answered feeling unsure. "Now we can't all just walk in a straight line through the woods, well have to spread out a little. If the yoma attacks, we don't want it to get all of us."  
  
The girls agreed. They all entered, Sailor Moon was a little in front of everyone leading them through. Mars was a few feet behind her to the right. Jupiter was to her left a few feet behind her. Mercury was in the far right in the back four feet behind Mars, and Venus was a little to the right of Jupiter and a few feet behind her. That's how they traveled through. After a while Sailor Moon began to feel a little worried and wondered if they were lost, but she proceeded.  
  
Moments later Sailor Moon felt something tugging on the back of her head. Then she noticed that one of her pony tails had gotten caught in a low branch. She had to stop and untangle herself. While she was busy trying to free herself, Mars passed her up and took her spot in the lead, but Sailor Mars must have at the most only walked about three feet a head of her when BANG! The yoma jumped out, as if it were waiting for someone, and slashed out a sharp vine and cut up Sailor Mars! She fell over dead. No one could believe it.   
  
Jupiter felt enraged and jumped up at the yoma. But as she got ready to attack, the yoma grabbed her out of mid air and ripped her with its sharp claws and threw Jupiter to the ground. Sailor Moon couldn't tell if she was still alive. Already tears were welling up in her eyes.   
  
Sailor Mercury ran in next but the dense woods made it almost impossible for her to get a good shot. The yoma used the same vine trick on her as it did with Sailor Mars. Mercury was instantly killed.  
  
Venus was now ready to attack, she held up her index finger, "Crescent BEAM!" She cried her attack's name trying to fight back tears. The beam hit a tree in front of a yoma, it broke and fell on top of Sailor Venus. Venus was mortally wounded and she laid there screaming.  
  
Sailor Moon still tried to free herself from the tree branch. The yoma was coming up close on her. Then a rose flew past it stopping the yoma, and hit the branch that Sailor Moon had her hair caught in. Her hair was cut shortening it and freeing her from the branch. Sailor Moon fell forward to the ground. Tuxedo Kamen had arrived. The yoma had recovered from the rose attack and was coming towards her again. Sailor Moon didn't know what to do. Was it weak enough to disintegrate it? Then an orange beam of light hit the yome and knocked it over. Sailor Moon looked and saw that Sailor Venus had used the last of her strength to have one last shot at it! Sailor Moon was speechless. Venus then fainted and closed her eyes for the last time.  
  
"Sailor Moon, now," Momaru instructed.  
  
Sailor Moon had to use one of her old attacks to kill the yoma. She removed her tiara and did a series of spins and twirls. "Moon tiara action!" She cried and threw the tiara like a Frisbee. The yoma was killed as soon as it was touched by it. Sailor Moon then immediately got up and changed back to Usagi. She looked at her friends, then collapsed to her knees and sobbed in her palms. "Three more feet," she thought, "three more feet!"  
  
Flash back ends................  
  
"Three more feet," the phrase echoed through present Usagi's mind. Usagi felt like crying.  
  
"Usako, are you alright?" Momaru asked trying to comfort her by putting his arms around her.  
  
Usagi pushed them off and ran out the door. She ran down the street towards the cemetery. Momaru followed her able to guess where she was headed. Usagi burst through the gate of the cemetery and headed to the section where her friends were buried with the thought, "three more feet" in her head. As she approached the four graves of her friends she collasped to her knees and started sobbing.   
  
"I'm so sorry!" She cried looking at the four graves.  
  
Usagi continued to sob. A few minutes later, a hand touched her shoulder. Usagi looked up and saw it was Momaru.  
  
"Usako, I'll ask you again, are you alright?" Momaru repeated the question from before.  
  
"Why did I get to live and my friends have to die!" Usagi sobbed. "You know if my hair hadn't gotten tangled in that tree branch and I had walked those three last feet it would have been me that was killed and not Rei! Sometimes I wish I were killed that day like they were! It's not fair! I hardly did anything!"  
  
"Usako," Momaru said gently, "You are the moon princess and it was their job to protect you." Momaru tried to calm her down.  
  
"I am the Moon Princess, but how does that make my life anymore important than theirs! Don't they deserve the right to live just as much as I do!" Usagi cried.  
  
"You got to be treated like a hero that day. No one has forgotten it." Momaru reminded.   
  
"I'm not a hero!" Usagi screamed still having her face buried in her knees. "My friends are the ones who gave the sacrifice, they are the real heroes!"  
  
Momaru almost had to give up. He couldn't find anymore ways to calm her. Then an idea came. "If you were killed, Chibi Usa wouldn't have been born and you can still remember your friends."  
  
Usagi looked up, and stopped crying. Momaru was right. "Your right Momo-chan, but it still hurts when I think about that day." Usagi stepped up and Momaru hugged her. They both walked home.  
  
When they entered the house, Usagi called Chibi Usa downstairs. Once Chibi Usa got there Usagi got the picture frame photo. Then she told Chibi Usa the story about her friends. After that she put the picture frame on the table on the side of the couch then thanked Chibi Usa.  
  
The next day marked the 15th anniversary that her friends were killed. Momaru, Usagi, and Chibi Usa walked to the cemetery. Usagi carried four flowers. Each a different color. She placed one at each of her friends graves. Blue at Ami's, red at Rei's, yellow at Minako's, and pink at Makoto's.(Green doesn't make a good flower color) Then she crouched down and whispered softly to the graves, "Thank you for everything."  
  
Authors notes*******I know, kind of depressing. I was inspired by a story my dad told me from when he was in the Vietnam War. The flash back was similer to the story he told me. The whole bit about the person passing someone who got held back and got shot a few seconds later at least. Well hoped you liked it!********   
  
  



End file.
